Indiana Police Reports: BuyCrash, Records Requests, and Bodycam Footage

Indiana is one of the minority of states that makes police-filed crash reports explicitly not confidential, and it takes an unusual structural approach to body camera footage. Indiana Code section 5-14-3-4(b)(1) states outright that "a law enforcement recording is not an investigatory record," which routes bodycam footage out of the general investigatory-records exemption and into two purpose-built statutes, IC 5-14-3-5.2 and IC 5-14-3-5.1. That reroute is not the same thing as an open-records guarantee, because IC 5-14-3-5.2 gives an agency its own list of grounds to refuse a recording, including one that expressly restores the ongoing-investigation objection.

This guide covers Indiana's BuyCrash crash report system, the local incident report process, and the state's bodycam inspection right.

Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How to Get a Copy of an Indiana Crash Report

BuyCrash, at buycrash.com, is Indiana's official statewide crash report channel. Indiana State Police "maintains the central repository of all crash reports for the State of Indiana, and makes electronic vehicle crash reports available for a nominal fee through the BuyCrash website." Reports purchased there "are Official State of Indiana Crash Reports and are usually $12.00 each." A report is available online once purchased, though it must first be filed and processed by the investigating agency before it can be bought, which can take a few days after the crash. Government and state agencies that need a report for official business are directed instead to the Public Records Request section of Indiana State Police's contact page rather than BuyCrash.

Indiana Does Not Treat Crash Reports as Confidential

Indiana Code section 9-26-2-3 puts the state in a minority position nationally: "a report filed by a law enforcement officer... is not a confidential record and shall be made available for inspection and copying" under Indiana's Access to Public Records Act. That is the opposite default from states like Florida or Texas, where a crash report is confidential unless the requester fits an eligible category.

How to Get an Indiana Police Incident Report

Other police reports, unrelated to a crash, are requested from the responding agency's records unit under Indiana's Access to Public Records Act, IC 5-14-3. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is a typical example: its process has reportedly included in-person requests at Room E100 of the City-County Building, or by mail with a self-addressed stamped envelope, but this guide could not independently confirm that room number or mailing address on IMPD's own site. Confirm the current intake location and any fee directly with IMPD's records section before relying on it.

Indiana's investigatory records exemption, IC 5-14-3-4(b)(1), lets an agency withhold investigatory records of a law enforcement agency at its discretion, and that same subsection carries the state's headline structural fact: "a law enforcement recording is not an investigatory record." But the discretion to withhold an investigative file is not total. The subsection closes by pointing the reader onward: "However, certain law enforcement records must be made available for inspection and copying as provided in section 5 of this chapter."

What Indiana Must Release Even When the Report Itself Is Withheld

IC 5-14-3-5 is the reader's actual entitlement when an agency refuses the narrative report.

Section 5(a) requires disclosure, for anyone arrested or summoned for an offense, of information identifying the person including name, age, and address, information concerning the charges the arrest or summons is based on, and information about the circumstances of the arrest, such as its time and location, the investigating or arresting officer other than an undercover officer or agent, and the investigating or arresting agency.

Section 5(b) requires the same identifying information for anyone received in a jail or lock-up, plus the reason the person is being held and the name of whoever ordered it, the time and date of receipt and of discharge or transfer, and the amount of bail or bond if it has been fixed.

Section 5(c) requires the agency to maintain a daily log or record of suspected or investigated crimes, accidents, and complaints, and to make specific parts of it available for inspection and copying: the time, substance, and location of all complaints or requests for assistance, the time and nature of the agency's response, and, if the incident involves an alleged crime or infraction, the time, date, and location of occurrence, the name and age of any victim, "the factual circumstances surrounding the incident," and a general description of any injuries, property, or weapons involved. The record must be created "not later than twenty-four (24) hours" after the suspected crime, accident, or complaint is reported. Victim name and age drop out of the log where the victim is under eighteen, absent the written consent described below, or is a victim of an offense under IC 35-42-4 or IC 35-42-3.5.

The Victim Carve-Out Is Narrower Than It First Reads

IC 5-14-3-4(b)(1) also carries a victim-protection provision for recordings, and its scope is easy to overstate. It exempts only "information described in subsection (a)(15)" when that information is contained in a law enforcement recording, and subsection (a)(15) reaches just the information described in section 5(c)(3)(B), the name and age of a victim of a crime or delinquent act "who is less than eighteen (18) years of age," as it appears in the section 5(c) daily log. That exemption lifts if a parent, guardian, or custodian consents in writing to public disclosure, and a parent, guardian, or custodian who has been charged with or convicted of a crime against the victim may not give that consent. It is not a general exemption for crime-victim information, and it does not place an adult victim's information behind a parental consent requirement.

Body Camera Footage in Indiana

Indiana routes bodycam footage out of the general investigatory-records exemption. IC 5-14-3-4(b)(1) says plainly that "a law enforcement recording is not an investigatory record." What that reroute does is send recordings to two purpose-built statutes. It does not, by itself, make them public.

The Pathway Open to Anyone: IC 5-14-3-5.2

IC 5-14-3-5.2(a) is the provision that applies to the general public: "A public agency shall permit any person to inspect or copy a law enforcement recording unless one (1) or more of the following circumstances apply." The exceptions do a great deal of the work. An agency may refuse if it finds, after due consideration of the facts of the particular case, that access to or dissemination of the recording:

• "creates a significant risk of substantial harm to any person or to the general public";
• "is likely to interfere with the ability of a person to receive a fair trial by creating prejudice or bias concerning the person or a claim or defense presented by the person";
• "may affect an ongoing investigation, if the recording is an investigatory record of a law enforcement agency as defined in section 2 of this chapter and notwithstanding its exclusion under section 4(b)(1) of this chapter"; or
• "would not serve the public interest."

The third ground repays a careful reading. Section 4(b)(1) takes recordings out of the investigatory-records exemption, and then 5.2(a)(2)(C) restores the ongoing-investigation objection expressly for recordings. The fourth ground is open-ended by design. Indiana's structural separation of bodycam footage is real, but it is a rerouting rather than an opening, and a reader should expect an agency to have grounds available.

Appealing a Bodycam Denial Goes to Court, Not the Public Access Counselor

If an agency denies access under 5.2, the ordinary public-records appeal is not the route. IC 5-14-3-5.2(b) directs the requester to "petition the circuit or superior court of the county in which the law enforcement recording was made for an order permitting inspection or copying of a law enforcement recording." The court reviews the agency's decision de novo and must grant the order unless the agency establishes one of the same grounds by a preponderance of the evidence. The Indiana Public Access Counselor's own handbook states it plainly: "Any appeal relating to the denial of access to a law enforcement recording should be submitted to the appropriate court, not the Public Access Counselor."

That route carries a real cost. Under IC 5-14-3-5.2(c), a person who obtains an order to inspect or copy a recording "may not be awarded attorney's fees, court costs, and other reasonable expenses of litigation," and the penalty provisions of section 9.5 do not apply to such a petition. That is the reverse of the ordinary APRA remedy. On the other side of the ledger, the court must conduct any required hearing and rule within thirty days of filing unless extraordinary circumstances prevent it.

A denial of the twice-inspection right in IC 5-14-3-5.1 is different: under 5.1(e), that denial may be appealed under section 9 of the chapter, the ordinary APRA path.

The Twice-Inspection Right, and Who Actually Holds It

IC 5-14-3-5.1(b) provides that "a public agency shall allow a requestor to inspect a law enforcement recording at least twice" if the requestor submits a written request under section 3, and the agency must allow the viewing to happen in the company of the requestor's attorney. Nothing may be copied or recorded by the requestor or the attorney during an inspection.

The guarantee is narrower than the sentence sounds, because "requestor" is a defined term. Under 5.1(a) it means only:

• an individual who is depicted in the recording;
• if that individual is deceased, the surviving spouse, father, mother, brother, sister, son, or daughter, or the personal representative of or an attorney representing the estate;
• if that individual is an incapacitated person, the legal guardian, attorney, or attorney in fact;
• a person who is an owner, tenant, lessee, or occupant of real property whose interior is depicted in the recording; or
• a person who is the victim of a crime, or who suffered a loss due to personal injury or property damage, where the events depicted are relevant to that loss or crime.

A member of the public, a researcher, or a journalist with no connection to the incident is not a requestor under this section and cannot claim the twice-inspection floor. Their route is IC 5-14-3-5.2.

What a Request Must Contain, and What a Copy Can Cost

IC 5-14-3-3(i) makes a bodycam request more demanding than an ordinary records request. It must be in writing, and it identifies the recording with reasonable particularity "only if" it provides all three of the following about the law enforcement activity depicted:

1. the date and approximate time of the law enforcement activity;
2. the specific location where the activity occurred; and
3. the name of at least one individual, other than a law enforcement officer, who was directly involved.

A request that omits any of the three is defective on the face of the statute, so gather all three before filing. On price, IC 5-14-3-8(g)(1) caps the charge: "the fee for a copy of a law enforcement recording may not exceed one hundred fifty dollars ($150)."

What Gets Obscured, and What Only May Be

The obscuring rules split between mandatory and permissive, and the split does not fall where the statute's section heading suggests. Before an inspection under 5.1, the agency "shall obscure in the recording information described in section 4(a) of this chapter," the chapter's list of confidential records, and "may obscure any information identifying" a law enforcement officer operating in an undercover capacity or a confidential informant.

On a disclosure under 5.2, the mandatory list is longer. IC 5-14-3-5.2(e)(1) requires an agency to obscure section 4(a) information plus depictions of an individual's death or a dead body, acts of severe violence against a clearly visible individual that result in serious bodily injury, serious bodily injury, nudity, an individual the agency reasonably believes is less than eighteen years of age, personal medical information, and, where the agency finds it necessary for safety, a crime victim or a witness to or reporter of a crime. Obscuring an undercover officer or a confidential informant remains permissive there too, under 5.2(e)(2)(A). For the state's fuller legal picture, see Indiana's body camera laws.

Corrections and Practical Notes

No dedicated correction process or driver exchange of information form specific to Indiana was located for this guide. If a report contains an error, contact the investigating agency or Indiana State Police directly.

Related Resources

Police Reports by State covers the full 50-state picture. See also how to file a police report, how to read a police report, are police reports public, how to request body camera footage, Indiana bodycam laws, Indiana car accident laws, Indiana public records laws, and Indiana court records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Indiana's police report and public records process. It is not legal advice. Fees, portals, and eligibility rules change; verify current details with the agencies named above or a licensed Indiana attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and portals reflect their published status as of August 2026.